What are bed bugs? You can see them as small and oval-shaped insects that live on your blood. They suck their food through a needle-like beak which enters your skin and injects anti-clotting saliva as it feeds. Once fed, they return to their hiding places where they can remain for up to 12 days before needing another feed.

In the United States, you can find bed bugs in homes, hotels, schools, shelters, and public transportation such as airplanes or subways. In other countries, particularly developing countries worldwide, you may find them in hospitals and nursing homes with poor sanitation.

What Are Bed Bugs

The life cycle of bed bugs is complex. They look different and become increasingly difficult to detect as time passes with each stage. See images that show how they transform during their life cycle. While you sleep, they feed on your blood then crawl back into cracks and crevices in the mattress or walls. They can even hide in clothing until night falls again and the sun goes down.

How to Identify Bed Bugs

It is not a good idea to squish them with your bare hands! They can bite when you see one or two. Some people may have allergic reactions which can cause rashes and annoying itching. But how do you know when these specks are bed bugs?

There are several ways on how to identify them including the following:

The Appearance of Bed Bugs

You might find their molted exoskeletons after they complete their life cycle.

They range from 1/4 inch long as an adult up until 7/16 inches before molting. This makes them resemble apple seeds with legs that look like bristles on a brush. You might even see them around your bed or through the cracks in your mattress.

Where Do Bed Bugs Hide?

They are nocturnal insects that seek shelter during the day. You will find them in the following places: crevices of mattresses, box springs, and headboards are common hiding places for them. On metal beds, they may prefer to get near the edge. This is where you cannot easily reach them with a shoe or spray insecticide.

The seams of mattresses tend to accumulate more because these areas have less exposure than other parts. They can also crawl into the buttons on your mattress when it has them.

Bed bugs can also hide behind your:

• wallpaper
• picture frames
• outlets
• baseboard heaters
• switch plates
• smoke detectors
• door frames
• moldings  

They could even live inside computer wiring or even within the walls themselves. This is how you end up with an infestation that cannot easily get exterminated.

You can find bed bugs in places where you spend the night. Examples are the bedroom or chair where you sit down after dinner to relax for an hour before bedtime. Check near any furniture items suspected of containing them along with other areas around 10 feet away from these suspect locations. Also, look up and down walls where young ones may have crawled through during inspection rounds.

When Bed Bugs Bite

You will feel a sharp prickling sensation as they bite through your skin. This usually occurs at night but can also happen during the day. Wherever the bed bugs hide, you might notice small blood stains or dark spots. These indicate that they have been there before going away to digest their blood meals.

It is your relief that bed bug bites are not always immediately life-threatening! They often cause itching, redness, and swelling at first. But these symptoms can develop into much more serious medical conditions in some people. This is due to their weakened immune system from other factors such as age or illness.

The most common effects on human skin include intense pain followed by an allergic reaction with hives or vomiting. Both signs of severe infection from pesticides used against them which will eventually lead to organ failure when left untreated. 

You can generally consider bed bugs as invisible feeders. They do not eat blood directly as mosquitoes do. This insect has still managed to kill countless victims across America since World War II. You could become one of them when you fail to exterminate them.

Signs of Bed Bug Infestation

The first step toward how to identify bed bugs is looking for signs of an infestation. They tend to congregate in greater numbers but they are not always visible. Seeing one or two means there may become more hiding nearby. So check everything closely with a magnifying glass.

They generally stick to the crevices of mattresses, box springs, and headboards because these areas are harder to reach with pesticides. You might find their molted exoskeletons after they complete their life cycle. Seeing them around your bed or through the cracks in your mattress when it has them is also possible.

Their cryptic behavior makes them the perfect pest to leave unnoticed for a long time! Bed bugs can last until a year without feeding. But how do you know when they are still there? Keep track of how many bites you get from day to night and even during the day.

People respond in different ways to bed bug bites! Some people hardly feel anything at all. Others show very intense reactions after these tiny insects bite them. You will notice small red bumps that itch or swell on your skin. It would only take a day or two for this response. This is compared with other insects such as mosquitoes which normally bite right away!

Causes of Bed Bug Infestation

You could learn how to identify bed bugs by keeping an eye on how they get inside your house. They mostly come during the summer and fall seasons when people travel more often between areas infested with them. These bugs can jump onto you anywhere while staying in hotels or even at home.

Once you bring these into your home, how to prevent bed bug infestation is also possible. Prevent access to electrical outlets and cracks where they might also fit. It will become easier when you have a pest control professional spray pesticide against them. Put it on entry points such as around baseboards and window frames. These are the places on where to identify bed bugs sneaking through.

Bed Bugs In The House

The pests have turned into a major epidemic during the past few years! Ships to America shortly after World War II first brought them in. Their population has grown ever since with your changing lifestyles! Now, people travel more often between different areas infested with these insects. This brings them straight into your home making how to identify bed bugs inside a possibility.

Bed Bug Treatments

The best way on how to exterminate bed bugs is by using a professional pest control service. They know how to search for them and will spray pesticide where they hide. This will not become enough when you try spraying pesticide yourself anywhere in your house.

You have no time to lose when it comes to how to prevent bed bug infestation after bringing some home with you. Make sure there are no signs of these somewhere before taking any more precautions. Bed bugs are easy to identify. You only need to know how to search for them, their hiding areas, and how they act with you.

It is how to exterminate bed bugs that is the most important step here! The pests reproduce rapidly with little effort! How to prevent them is very difficult without professional help. Learn how they bite you by watching closely where these bumps appear on your skin. Keep an eye out for all this information.

You will know how to stop infestation during its early stages. Doing so will make extermination much easier later on when their population has grown too big for your home’s size!

Professional Bed Bug Extermination

Identify bed bugs in a hotel room out of caution. You feel safe knowing how they affect you and how to spot them. Some signs reveal how the pests have spread everywhere! These include seeing their molted exoskeletons after completing their life cycle as well as feeling how often they bite you during the night.

These insects hide where you do not look at first sight. They stick to areas such as:

• mattress seams
• box springs
• bed frames
• headboards
• carpets
• nearby furniture pieces
• behind wallpaper

As a result, how to rid of bed bugs becomes much easier when a professional bed bug exterminator performs it. He will also know how to prevent them from coming back.

Learn how they act with you. Kill bed bugs that seem like they itch all the time! But it is how to prevent bed bug bites that can become an issue. You may also notice how quickly their bodies turn red after feeding on your blood!

Professional extermination is about getting rid of bed bugs for good! Their population has grown too big by now for you to do anything yourself. When there are many people in one area infested with these insects, you might see how they change colors due to how often they eat. It is possible to identify them outdoors where more than one generation exists at once!

Follow this guide about broadening your knowledge on bed bugs and exterminating them. Keep your home and business safe from their appearance.